Blog roundup: Partisanship and money

The Houston city elections are non-partisan, but party politics can play a behind-the-scenes role. At Pondering Penguin, blogger Karen links the lack of support for conservative mayoral candidate Roy Morales among the Harris County Republican Party leadership to "complacency" in the local GOP:

Like many Republicans in Houston, I ponder, what is happening to the Republican party on our local level? I think the current leadership has fallen into complacency and only now is stepping up efforts to expand outreach. I also think it is only because Jared Woodfill finds himself with two opponents in his re-election bid for Harris Co Republican Party (HCRP) chairman. Having attended some post-election town hall style meetings hosted by the HCRP, I am not alone in voicing displeasure with the lack of ideas and consistency in outreach to all parts of the city. It appears little effort has been made on the part of the HCRP to support Morales in his bid for mayor.

I got an idea from a friend to look up Brown’s contributions to federal candidates on opensecrets.org. Here’s the result of that search. I was a little surprised to find out that Peter supported Republicans on the federal level, but the evidence is clear – he gave to McCain, Giualani, Cornyn, McCaul, and Romney. The vast majority of his contributions were to Democrats (including moveon.org – you can’t get more liberal than that). If this information is important to you in making your decision of who to vote for in the mayoral race, here you go (I bolded the Republican donations):

Griffin’s an Annise Parker supporter.

Bloggers continue to endorse candidates in the local election as early voting continues. David Ortez has publish a list of his recommendations, but holds back on the mayoral race:

Rest assure … I have made my choice for Mayor and all I can really say is that at the end of the day it was rather easy for me to make that decision because the candidate I will vote for is the most qualified of the three. Here is a hint though … their yard sign is in the above photograph.

As you’ll see by the photo when you click over, he’s not giving anything away with that clue.

Both Isiah Carey’s Insite blog and Jim’s Notes on Texas Politics reprint a press release from the Houston GLBT Political Caucus expressing concern over County Clerk Beverly Kaufman’s endorsement of mayoral candidate Gene Locke. Carey’s got a note saying he’s asked Kaufman for a response, but he hasn’t updated that entry yet.

. . . Texas Watchdog has the details on where the candidates get their money — only this time, we’re not talking about their campaign cash. We’re talking about their jobs, their investments, the businesses they own, and the money they normally bring home to their families and households.

If you’ve got a blog post on the local elections you’d like considered for a future roundup, e-mail me.